Last night was the 50th Super Bowl where the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10. It was a mild upset because all year long Carolina had pretty much been the premiere team while Denver kind of shocked the world by beating the 2nd best team in the league thanks to their great defense. It wasn’t close to a pretty game but winning beats pretty any day.

Since my rooting interest most years, including this one, was fairly minimal (I have my annual pizza bet with my friend Scott; this year I lost… heck!), it means I’m always more interested in the commercials than anything else. As usual, there were some hits and some misses; also as usual, there were a few commercials that garnered both like and dislike, depending on the person in the audience.

There was also one other difference in the commercials. At least half the commercials were by companies that showed more than one commercial for their products. I think Hyundai, Jeep and Acura ran at least 2 commercial spots, and at around $5 million a commercial… whew!

I’m talking about commercials because during the game I was talking to my friend Kelvin about product creation. As y’all know, I’ve created a few products over the years. To the left there you’ll see 3 products I’ve created, two books and a webinar. I’ve also got another book, a training manual, an employee evaluation manual and a seminar series I can count among products I’ve created. I’m thinking that’s not so bad; who knows, you might even click on a link or two here just to take a quick look. 🙂

I’ve sold a few things here and there over the years, but never quite sustained anything or actually done the push towards selling any of my products. That’s a major failing on my part yet something I can now talk about… how much marketing and promotion are we willing to do, and what type and how much will we do so that we have the opportunity to make sales?

I’ll tell you the truth, I’m not the worlds best marketer. I know what I’m supposed to do; after all, I’m the guy who wrote about Yosemite Sam marketing after all. I’m also the guy who wrote a post giving folks definitive marketing rules to follow, which I do… kind of…

If I know all this, then why am I not doing it as much as I should or as good as I should? Is my reason the same as yours?

I have two reasons… neither of which I’m sure are very good, but I’m willing to share them.

The first is that I’m more of a creator than a marketer. If I’m not creating products I’m creating content. I spent hours reading and researching and evaluating and then writing about things I learn. After that I promote what I write in a few different ways and wait for you folks to stop by, read, offer your opinion, hopefully take a bit of knowledge with you, and move to the next project.

The second… overall I hate marketing! lol I don’t like bothering people, indirectly or not. Sure, I do some promoting, but I’m not close to doing it as often as I should. I might market my products 3 times a week on Twitter if I’m lucky. I might market my products on Facebook every once in a while, maybe every 5 or 6 months. Once I stopped writing articles for LinkedIn I stopped marketing there at all. Even when I’ve written about a product and created a sales page, most of the time I’ve forgotten all about it & don’t mention it all that often. I don’t have any email lists, don’t write anymore newsletters, won’t pick up the phone… whew! I’m thinking it’s hard to make any sales when I’m not doing any marketing or promoting. I’m sure you’ll agree.

I’m also betting that for most of you who are hoping to make money online or offline, your issue is one of the two issues I mentioned. It’s why most of us make little to no money, get little to no calls for consulting or training or project work, and don’t get as many comments on our blogs or even visitors.

I often ask myself “is it hard or do I just perceive it’s hard?” I think it’s a little of both. As much as I hate popups (see #8), it’s depressing to have to acknowledge that some people increase their lists and possibly make money because of them… though I’ve never signed up for anything a site has because of its stupid popups. I’m betting a lot of you have though; come on, admit it.

In this year of focus, I’m determined to figure certain things out and address them as well as write about them. With the acknowledgment that one can’t make money without marketing, no matter what it is, I’ve actually started a campaign on LinkedIn for my main profession, which I’ll talk about at a different time. I’ve made some contacts and good connections, which proves that it can work if you’re willing to do the work the right way.

Now all I have to do is figure out what my trigger point is going to be in marketing my products and services. Sure, I can do it on my blogs, but there are other ways of getting it done. I’m going to figure out something I can live with; I challenge you to do the same if you haven’t figured it out.

Then again, there’s always Adrienne… 🙂